Monday, 25 February 2013

When I first started sewing I made a fabric bucket for scraps as I sewed. A few weeks ago, my husband was putting out the garbage and I said there were some fabric scraps my machine, if he could toss them...

Bet you can guess what he did.. Yup, instead of emptying it out the whole bucket was thrown out.

So today, I decided I needed a new bucket.. I wanted to try out something new.. and then got the smart idea of using a placemat that I've had in my fabric stash for a while.

Turned out to be the easest thing I've sewed.. two stitch lines.

And what I liked even better.. the method I used for the bottom was the one type of bag from the ikat bag series that I hadn't done (Pleated or Folded bottom bag) So I learnt something new.

I somehow managed to get to tutorial on a bag with this kind of bottom, but it was in another language. I managed to figure out the steps via the photos. Here's what I did..

Take the placemat and fold the the long side righ sides together to have a pleat like so..

Now, I just guessed at the size of the fold.. My fold was a bit too big.. the side detail ended up wider than the front!

Clipping that down, sew down the two sides.

I used white thread so the stitches could be seen.. ﻿

﻿

And that's it! Turn it right side out

Now of course if you don't use a placemat, you'll have raw edges on the top, so either hem those down at the beginning or make a lining the same way and assemble like a bag..

As you can see the zipper is sewn to either side of the ribbon This can also be done without a ribbon I think, by sewing the zipper to itself.

The tutorial uses 80" of zipper tape - I used a duvet zipper bought at Walmart. It was 60', so I didn't follow the tutorials measurements.

The starting and finsihing steps are a bit confusing and I really needed to play with the zipper to figure it out.

At the ends you need to wrap the zipper around the ribbon.. I couldn't do this neatly at all.

The tutorial also indicates you can do a lining.. but I had enough trouble with those ribbon ends, I don't have the patience to do the lining.. so the inside is not the prettiest, but still a cute pouch!

Saturday, 16 February 2013

Have you been following ikat bag's Make a Bag series? I have.. It's been intersting and honestly the bags she's made are quite awesome and creative. So even if you know all there is to know about bagmaking, it's fun to just browse her posts for her bag photos.

She's gone through 7 bag types. Today she posted a quiz challenging readers to look at an online store and categorize some bags into the bag types. I decided it would be fun to take some of the bags I've made and classify those instead.

So here goes- some of these I've posted about before.. Each bag type name will be linked to ikat's post.

My favourite feature is the band that goes along the gusset and bottom

My least favourite part is the back, where I had a few problems with the zipper pocket. My zipper foot did not work well with the faux leather. (I had been using my walking foot most of the time)

Let's not look at that too long!

Inside has a zipper pocket on one side and a divided patch pocket that ran the whole length of the bag.

I love the argyle lining..

And between the lining and exterior I used... Shelf liner..

Yup shelf liner.. It's a thin foam and when I saw it at the store I thought I would experiment with it. The back is is smooth so I glue that that side to the faux leather. I think it worked ok.. The bag has some structure and stands up by itself.

Another first for me was the piping. Wasn't as scary as I thought! I made the strips but didn't cut the fabric on the bias.. I imagined there would be quite a bit of waste and was just feeling lazy.. I think it worked out ok, but I've never done it before so not sure how much a difference cutting on the bias would make.

I still haven't decided how long I want the strap.. I can easily remove links in the chain so I'll see how I end up wearing it.

This is my sketch (The bag is for an online class, we need to submit sketches and patterns as well as photo's of the final bag)

Overall, I'm pretty happy that it turned out as I wanted.. expect for the darn back zipper pocket..

Thursday, 14 February 2013

Well technically it's no longer Wednesday for me but I figure it is somewhere in the world!

So back to that bag. Exterior is done. Lining is done. Both look good.. Here's a sneak peak

I'm nervous to put together, as I usually am when finishing the bag. I'm extra nervous because the exterior is a faux leather. I think I've only done one other bag where assembly involved stitching faux leather. It was my first time using it and my topstitching around the opening was really bad. The bottom stitch on the lining got a few loops and my machine had trouble with the thickness. I think I shed a couple tears.

I've learnt a few things about working with vinyl/faux leather since then To make sure I make the proper adjustments I quickly put together some scraps and "test" stitched.

My machine with a walking foot had no problem sewing through the layers. No issues with the bottom stitch. Excuse my crooked sewing.﻿

It's around 1am for me and there's no place for tiredness when bag-making! So first thing tomorrow I'm going to finish this sucker off..

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Another Cameo project from me.. With Valentine's coming up, I had to use the machine to make Valentine's for my son's class.

I found this cute lacing card in the Silhouette Store. It was perfect as I know lacing is an activity done in his class..

I O-fish-ially Like You!

This was the project that caused a little trouble - I had some trouble cutting out the heart fins. I think I choose a wrong setting and the machine double cut them and the blade seemed to skip. I stopped the machine and checked the blade which had some tiny pieces of paper caught.

I searched online on how to open the blade casing.. I managed to do open and clean the blade, but had trouble putting the casing back. In doing so, my finger slipped over the over the blade and I got a slight cut.. Kinda like a paper cut.. After that I put it away and let me husband figure it out. I thought I might have broken the blade but luckily not.

My son glued the eye and fin. He also is writing names on a little tag that says "I o-fish-ially like you!" What's a Valentine without a corny phrase!

My husband and I are wrapping some plastic laces around them. They'll be packaged with some Valentine stickers for each little friend.

And I think now I need to put away the cutting machine until my next bag is complete!

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Canvas and acrylic paints with the aid of stencils created with the Cameo cutting machine:

And a card..

Loving the cutting machine! The first two were one with images from the Silhouette store. The Star Wars ones were done with free images found online and using the "Trace" option in the sofware that comes with the achine.

Friday, 8 February 2013

The campaign is asking for handmade bracelets and zipper pouches that will be gifted to women and girls rescued from forced sexual slavery. You can check out A Train To Crazy for details. I will be sending some zipper pouches.﻿